Exploring the place of troubleshooting in an undergraduate electronics engineering education programme at a university in South Africa.

Abstract

Whereas the ability to identify, formulate and solve engineering problems is considered an essential learning outcome for an engineering education curriculum, there seems to be ambivalence around the place of troubleshooting in electronics engineering programmes. Yet, the practice of troubleshooting is deemed a requisite generic engineering competency skill in industry. The San Diego 24-hour blackout in 2011 is a commonly cited case to highlight the importance of electronics troubleshooting in modern electronics engineering. In this regard, engineering troubleshooting is seen to play a vital role in the safety and economic wellbeing of a nation. However, many universities offering engineering education programmes have tended to omit or put little emphasis on troubleshooting in their curriculum, thereby creating a lacuna between theoretical knowledge and problem solving skills in real-world troubleshooting. This current study, therefore, sought to explore the place of troubleshooting in an undergraduate electronics engineering education programme at a South African university. This study argues that, without the appropriate instructional pedagogy in troubleshooting, a tension between “theory” and “practice” in engineering education will continue to exist. A qualitative case study research design was employed to interrogate the following three broad questions: (i) Is troubleshooting accommodated within an electronics engineering programme? (ii) How is the electronics engineering programme enacted? (iii) What informs how the programme was enacted? Phenomenography and Lefebvre’s theory of space were used as analytical and theoretical frameworks, respectively. Phenomenography allowed for the delineation of the different ways in which troubleshooting was conceptualised by the various participants. Lefebvre’s theory of space allowed for the differentiation of the three domains that characterise the place of troubleshooting within the undergraduate electronics engineering programme, namely, the conceived space (government policy), the perceived space (institutional curriculum and instruction) and the lived space (fourth year engineering students). With respect to the first question, the findings revealed that this question was domain dependent. With respect to the first domain, the findings indicate that troubleshooting was not afforded any place at all (0% affordance), whereas the second domain showed a mixed response from the participants (lecturers and technicians). A 50% versus 50% affordance was recorded for this domain. In contrast, the third domain’s findings indicated 100% affordance. With respect to the second question, the findings were that the electronics engineering programme was broadly enacted through individual-based, theory-based and design-based practices, indicating a total absence of explicit troubleshooting teaching practices. Further, findings from the third question reveal that there was no explicit teaching of troubleshooting in the electronics engineering education programme. While the practice of troubleshooting is deemed a requisite generic engineering competency skill, the non-explicit teaching of troubleshooting as a core part of electronics engineering curriculum has implications for policy, practice and research. Whereas the CHE and ECSA policy documents that guide engineering education in South African universities make no provisions for the place of troubleshooting in electronics engineering education programme, the findings suggests that such omission or silence in the policy impacts the learning outcome of electronics engineering students, who graduate without the requisite expertise needed to solve real-life troubleshooting problems. This requisite expertise, as the literature affirms, should unequivocally form an important element of the electronics engineering curriculum practice and discourse in South African universities. The implications of the findings in this study further suggest the need to critically look at the possible gaps between theory and practice, and the dynamics of institutional influences on practices. Further research is suggested with a view to narrow the gap between theory and enactment in the electronics engineering education curriculum.